Audleys Wood, Hampshire - hotel review

Audleys Wood, Hampshire - hotel review

1/2

Well-preserved: Audleys Wood

2/2

Fine-dining: Audleys Wood Hotel’s Simonds restaurant

It’s Saturday morning and I’m stirring a vat of raspberries bubbling even more loudly than the rain is coming down outside. The smell is delicious, and the deep ruby colour mesmerising. But Sue Rockhill, my jam-making teacher for the morning, takes the spoon out of my hand. Tempting as it is, too much stirring will stop my raspberry jam from setting, I’m told.

It’s an absurdly wet weekend; flooding has been forecast across England. And we’ve just discovered a storm-inflicted hole in our roof. Not the ideal recipe for a weekend away in Hampshire. But back home on this wet Saturday morning, my husband and I would be putting a wash on, watching television, or watching water drip through the ceiling. Instead, halfway through our mini-break, we’ve already been fed dinner by a former MasterChef star at the four-star Audleys Wood Hotel’s Simonds restaurant, slept deep, holiday-style slumbers and got stuck into our Jamming Session.

It’s part of the hotel’s latest package: instead of chucking in a massage with bed and breakfast, we’re offered the chance to make condiments at the nearby Hampshire Jam and Chutney Company. The grand name meant I was a bit bemused to pull-up in a cul-de-sac near Twyford, the town famous for unsuccessfully campaigning against a bypass, and find the HJCC’s headquarters to be its co-founder Sue’s kitchen. But this was far nicer than factory learning.

Sue’s dining table was groaning with some of her company’s range: strawberry and rose petal jam alongside jars of crunchy cucumber, red onion chutney and three-fruit marmalade. They’re sold on shelves including Fortnum & Mason’s but all the ingredients are local. Sue is clearly an expert and my husband and I are soon learning clever jam-making tricks involving frozen saucers and changing bubble sizes.

She also, I can confirm from our mid-session tea break, makes excellent versions of Jammy Dodgers. I don’t think the Tesco-sold version ever contains mulled three-fruits jam. We returned to Audleys Wood with jars of jam and marmalade plus recipe sheets that mean I’ll certainly be burning my home saucepans with amateur attempts soon. In the meantime, the rain continued chucking it down. No matter — we plonked ourselves in front of the cosy fire in the lounge, borrowed some board games and admired the Gothic building.

The name Audley is found in the Domesday Book, and the hotel building itself has existed in some form or other since 1880, but it looks even more historic: even then, the architect clearly wasn’t going for any type of modernism. Intricate wood carvings adorning the stairs and walls and hanging tapestries and room names tell more of Audleys’ history: previous owners include Henry Simonds, owner of a Reading brewery, who bought the estate in 1900, before it was leased to Viscount Camrose, then editor and owner of The Daily Telegraph.

He used the lounge at Audleys to host meetings with important contacts but in the Fifties the house and grounds were sold to the local council, which used Audleys as an old people’s home. Luckily, there are no signs of that phase of its history, which was bought back into private ownership in 1989 and is now part of the Hand Picked Hotels Group.

The downside of the wet weather was that we couldn’t take a turn in the manicured grounds. The rain also meant we would have appreciated a few more facilities — there’s no pool or spa, although the hotel room book says these haven’t arrived “yet”. Our deluxe room was lovely, albeit in a chintzy way, with wonderful views of the countryside, and the bathroom’s deep hot tub was a joy to sink into.

The jewel in Audleys’ crown, though, is its food. Dinner at Simonds restaurant was delicious: my three courses of watercress soup, amazing gnocchi and Valrhona chocolate fondant were interspersed with a just-as-good amuse bouche, service was attentive and the sense of experience meant £45 for three courses didn’t seem unreasonable.

Next day the rain had stopped. We looked through the hotel’s book of things to see and do, including Jane Austen’s house at Chawton, where she spent the last eight years of her life, just a short drive away, and the New Forest, with walks and cycle routes, for which guests are offered picnic lunches. We opted to walk through the Hampshire countryside, with no thoughts of leaky roofs or the working week ahead. And when we got home, we coated our toast in our we-made-it raspberry jam and remembered a lovely weekend.